Glenn Fowler

Glenn Fowler is a computer scientist who, with Phong Vo, originated the idea behind the Fowler-Noll-Vo hash function, known as FNV. In 1991 Fowler and Vo sent reviewer comments to the IEEE POSIX P1003.2 committee that contained the basis of the FNV hash algorithm. In a later ballot round Landon Curt Noll improved on their algorithm. Some people tried the hash and found that it worked rather well, and in an email message to Noll they named it the Fowler, Noll, Vo hash, or FNV. FNV hashes are designed to be fast while keeping a low collision rate, and their high dispersion suits nearly identical strings such as URLs, hostnames, filenames, text and IP addresses. The algorithm and its source code were placed in the public domain, and FNV later became an official IETF RFC. This entry records only what the FNV history page states about Fowler's part in it.